I’ve joined with Wallace and several others to do a read-along of To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. This is my first Woolf novel because, frankly, she frightens me and I needed to have some support.
This first week (and I should have posted this on the 8th, so pardon my lateness), we were to read pages 1-53 (although I did go ahead and finish chapter 9). Here are some of my thoughts on what we have read.
- Please… the run-on sentences are killing me. They are beautiful, of course they are, and they are so filled with literary genius that they make me feel incredibly stupid because sometimes I have to read them three or four times or risk losing complete control of the story and feeling like I have to start over and oh my gosh I can’t stop writing this sentence because Virginia Woolf has infected me!
- I feel as if there should be a cheat-sheet, and in fact I might just make one, because while I can keep track of Mrs. Ramsay and her son, James, the other names are all floating around in this mist about my head and I feel as if I’m grasping thin air to grab puzzle pieces that aren’t there.
- While it is confusing, at the same time I’m finding this book to be relaxing. It’s forcing me to slow down, to savor each page as if it’s a really well-cooked meal that will give me indigestion if I eat it too quickly. And I am curious. I want to know about these people. I want to know about them in a .. I’m somewhat bored by you but still fascinated at the same time.. type of way.
It was difficult to put down this book and a relief at the same time. I’m not sure how I am supposed to feel, but I get the feeling that Ms. Woolf intended us to feel that way. Such a manipulator she is, but yet… I am more than willing to be manipulated another week.
